San Blas Islands Part 1

From Portobelo we took a local minibus to an even smaller port town named Puerto Lindo, where we met our captain Gisbert from the catamaran Santana, who would take us from Panama to Cartagena. The next morning we impatiently waited in the rain for the dingy to take us to the boat that would be our home for the next 5 days. As we sailed onto the open sea the waves were choppy, the catamaran dived and climbed violently and all the 10 passengers except for Mark and I got sick. Some were vomiting. I sat all the way in the front of the boat with my legs hanging from each side of the pontoon and enjoyed the roller-coaster ride as with each dip I splashed into the sea. In the late afternoon the sea calmed down and we arrived at the first San Blas islands. These are a scattered group of about 300 islands, some inhabited by a semi-autonomous indigenous people, that spread from the coast of Panama all the way to Colombia. The islands have a prototypical "paradise island" character: perfect sand beaches, coconut trees, no modern real-estate and are lined by beautiful coral reefs. For three days we went island hopping and for the last two days we sailed the open sea to Cartagena. This was one of my favorite experiences of my journey to date. I always thought that real unspoiled island paradise existed only in movies. I will cherish this experience for the rest of my life.

San Blas Islands Part 1

From Portobelo we took a local minibus to an even smaller port town named Puerto Lindo, where we met our captain Gisbert from the catamaran Santana, who would take us from Panama to Cartagena. The next morning we impatiently waited in the rain for the dingy to take us to the boat that would be our home for the next 5 days. As we sailed onto the open sea the waves were choppy, the catamaran dived and climbed violently and all the 10 passengers except for Mark and I got sick. Some were vomiting. I sat all the way in the front of the boat with my legs hanging from each side of the pontoon and enjoyed the roller-coaster ride as with each dip I splashed into the sea. In the late afternoon the sea calmed down and we arrived at the first San Blas islands. These are a scattered group of about 300 islands, some inhabited by a semi-autonomous indigenous people, that spread from the coast of Panama all the way to Colombia. The islands have a prototypical "paradise island" character: perfect sand beaches, coconut trees, no modern real-estate and are lined by beautiful coral reefs. For three days we went island hopping and for the last two days we sailed the open sea to Cartagena. This was one of my favorite experiences of my journey to date. I always thought that real unspoiled island paradise existed only in movies. I will cherish this experience for the rest of my life.